Double Dad Duty
by CAJeannieFan57
Summary: I Dream of Jeannie and The Bob Newhart Show crossover. Third in series, sequel to I Dream of Genie and Double Jeopardy. Roger and Howard get together for a day in Houston and have a little fun with their children. COMPLETE.
1. Chapter 1 The Visitors

**DOUBLE DAD DUTY**

**TBNS/IDOJ Crossover**

**Set at end of Season 6 TBNS**

**Story by CAJeannieFan57/Donna**

**Third in a Series: **_"I Dream of Genie", "Double Jeopardy" and "Double Dad Duty."_

Roger Healey walked into Tony Nelson's office one Friday morning whistling and feeling really happy. After an argument on Thursday night, Roger and his wife Tracy went to bed mad at each other. However, she awoke in the wee hours and lay there, finally waking up Roger to apologize. She had started it, she said, and was wrong. The way she'd apologized made a wonderful start to the morning.

"Good morning, Tone," Roger said to Tony. "You needed me over here?"

"Yes, I have your training schedule for next week," Tony said. "And an extra copy for General Blake over in the Engineering Department. Whenever you're not needed here, you can be…" He was interrupted by his phone. "Tony Nelson. Yes, he's here, just a moment." Tony handed the phone to Roger. "I don't know how they found you here, but they did. It's for you."

"Me? Is it Tracy?" Roger asked.

"No. I don't really recognize the voice."

Roger took the call, looked at his schedule for that day and said, "Sure, I can do that. Three o'clock, Worldwide Air, flight 87 out of Chicago. How long are you in for? ... No, don't do that. Stay with us, we've got plenty of room. …. When do you fly tomorrow? … We can do that, too. Good to talk to you again, see you later." Roger hung up.

A puzzled Tony asked, "Who was that?"

"A friend from Chicago … he's flying in this afternoon, and I'll go up and get him. Maybe I'll take Skylar, or T.J., with me," Roger hinted around.

"T.J. has an appointment this afternoon over in Baghdad, Rog'," Tony told him. "Take your daughter - she'd love your attention. Tracy might, too."

"Tracy's got a party tomorrow, and said she was spending this afternoon reorganizing her inventory." Roger's wife owned her own Hot Stuff franchise, a company that sold lingerie through home parties. She was not only top saleswoman for the company in Houston, but also was an Area Coordinator. "She would probably appreciate it if I could get Skylar out of the house for a couple of hours. Can I use your phone?"

"Sure."

A little later, on the way to the airport, a very excited four-year-old girl asked, "Daddy, are we going somewhere?"

Roger chuckled. "No, Punkin. Remember, I said we're picking up Mr. Borden. He's flying into Houston and has an overnight layover here."

"What's a layover?" Skylar asked.

"That's when you stay someplace longer than you want to."

Roger and Skylar waited at the gate at Houston Intercontinental Airport, which is on Houston's north side. It had taken them an hour in light traffic to get there. Roger was going over routes home in his mind as he waited – a 3:00 landing meant that he'd be traveling with rush hour on the way home.

Many travelers got off the plane first. Skylar kept watching. "Daddy, I don't see the man who looks like you."

"Pilots and navigators don't get off the plane with the passengers, sweetie. Besides, he just went back to working on a passenger airline, so it may take him a little longer."

Indeed, the last people off were the plane's crew. Howard Borden came down the telescoping ramp with a ten-year-old boy at his side. Howard greeted Roger first.

"Hey, how are you?"

"Good to see you, Howard," Roger said. "Are you responsible for a child traveling alone? I thought that was the flight attendant's job."

Howie Borden giggled. "No, I'm not traveling alone. I'm Howie – this is my dad."

Roger looked the boy over. 'This one must look like his mother,' he thought. Aloud, he said, "I'm glad to meet you, Howie. Your dad didn't tell me he was bringing you. I'm Roger Healey, and this is my daughter, Skylar."

"That's a funny name," Howie told Skylar.

"I'm named for SPACE. That's where MY daddy travels," Skylar told him.

Roger explained a little further, "Skylar's mom found out we were going to have her while I was up on Skylab. So her name is sort of like Skylab." Howie looked puzzled, not understanding what Skylab was, and Roger chose not to explain right away.

The four walked towards an office, where Howard stopped to take care of something. While they waited outside the office, Howie said, "My dad said you look like him. Sometimes my dad is wrong, but not this time."

Roger chuckled. "Yes, we've been mistaken for each other a few different times. That's actually how we met."

Once at the Healey family car, the four piled in and Howie immediately started talking about how "cool" it had been to ride in the cockpit of the plane and how he'd learned about all the dials and instruments there.

"How did you get to ride in the cockpit, at your age?" Roger asked.

Howard answered, "It's Take Your Son to Work Day. This was the first time Howie was old enough to go." He put his arm around the young man's shoulders and drew him close, very fatherly.

"And Mom let me go, too!" Howie exclaimed.

"She wasn't really thrilled about it," Howard explained, "but it meant a weekend with her new husband."

"My step-dad's a real jerk," Howie declared.

"That's not a nice word!" Skylar interjected. "My mommy say, I not use that word!"

Howie laughed a little. "My mom doesn't like me to use the word, either. But Dad knows what I mean – don't you, Dad?"

Howard didn't say anything for about a minute. "Don't use that word, son," he finally said.

"Okay, Dad." Howie then went on to tell Roger all about the plane's cockpit and how he really wanted to be a pilot someday. "A pilot, not a navigator like my dad."

Roger chuckled. "Navigators have to be pilots, too."

"Do YOU know about pilots?"

Howard interjected, "Howie, Colonel Healey is an astronaut."

THAT got Howie's attention. "You mean, those guys that FLY in SPACE?" Both Howard and Roger nodded. "WOW!" Howie immediately started asking Roger a lot of questions about rockets, the moon, and the planets.

Roger made a quick stop at a pay phone at one of the exits off the freeway, and made a phone call. He hopped back in the car. "All right, it's set. We're not going straight to our house. Howie, how would you like a tour of NASA's Johnson Space Center?"

The freeways were surprisingly light for a Friday afternoon, so they made it back down to Nassau Bay in a little over an hour. They then spent the next two hours touring the Space Center. Roger got a golf cart from Public Affairs Department to expedite their visit. Both Howard and Howie were fascinated by the place. Every time they passed a full size model on display in the Quad or other area, Howie had to ask Roger how many people did it hold, where did it fly, was this the real thing or a model, how fast could it go, and had he ever been in one?

"I think I changed my mind, Dad," Howie told Howard. "I want to be an astronaut when I grow up!"

Howard rolled his eyes and sighed. "And how much does THAT cost!"

Roger gave Howie the information he needed. "These days, the astronaut corps wants people with college degrees in Science – either aerospace, engineering, or something like Geology. Most of us old astronauts were also trained pilots, a lot with either war experience or fighter pilot school like Top Gun."

Howie looked at his dad. "You went to pilot school, right?"

"I sure did," Howard told him. "But that was a long time ago and it's different now."

"Different how?"

"I don't know. I learned in the military."

Turning back to Roger, Howie asked, "Then what after college?"

"You have to apply to the astronaut corps and be chosen. It's really tough, and you have to really want it bad."

The golf cart rolled past NASA's Recreation Building. There was a playground located right next to it. "Daddy, can we swing for a little while?" Skylar asked. Roger stopped, figuring that Skylar needed to stretch her legs. Roger and Howard watched as both Howie and Skylar jumped out of the golf cart and raced each other to the swings. They laughed as each hopped on a swing. Skylar knew how to pump a swing, but always had a hard time getting it going at first. "Daddy, push me!" she requested. Both men watched as Howie got off his swing to go and push the little girl. He gave her one push.

Roger went to push his daughter, but Howard got there first. "Can I push you?" Howard asked Skylar.

She was a little surprised, but she said, "Okay. Just don't push me too hard. I'm little and I'll fall off." Both fathers tried not to laugh aloud.

Howard said quietly to Roger, "I think Howie's still a little boy at heart, though he tries to act grown up for me."

At the children's bed times, Tracy tucked Skylar in first. "You've had a long day, sweetheart. You need to get some sleep."

"Mommy, we had fun today. Howie – he push me on the swing. So did Howie's daddy," Skylar told her.

"That was very nice of both of them," Tracy said. "But you have pre-ballet class tomorrow, so you need to go to sleep."

"Can I take Howie to the park after ballet?"

"That will be up to your dad. He's taking you to class in the morning. I have a party to host," Tracy answered.

After Howard tucked Howie in – well, as much "tucking in" as a ten-year-old boy will allow – the three adults gathered in the living room to chat. After about an hour, Tracy excused herself and let the two men talk by themselves. They were talking about flying and the differences between piloting and navigating. Though Tracy's initial opinion of Howard Borden was that he must not be very intelligent, after listening to him talk about that subject for that long, Tracy was inclined to think that he wasn't as stupid as he seemed.

Once Tracy was out of the way, Roger could ask Howard about the next day's schedule and the planned activities. After some chuckling and sinister plotting, the two men decided to have a little fun the next day. What they didn't know was that the fun was going to begin shortly!


	2. Chapter 2 Oops!

Chapter 2 – Oops!

Before bedtime, Howard asked if he could use the downstairs bathroom since it had a shower stall. Roger went up to his den to read a file. Tracy, unaware of this change, came into the bedroom and changed into her nightwear – a lacey negligee. She heard thumping from inside the bathroom, and some from upstairs, so she assumed that Howard was upstairs and her husband was in the downstairs bathroom. She waltzed into the bathroom, unannounced.

Howard was stunned. He was standing there with only his shorts on, in front of the mirror, when Tracy came in wearing the negligee. After what Roger had just suggested for the next day, involving switching kids for the morning, he was amazed that this might involve the wife as well.

"Sweetheart, how long are you going to be?" Tracy asked him.

"Um – um…" Howard was nervous. "Another ten minutes or so. Why?"

"Oh – just wondering – I'll wait for you in the bedroom," Tracy said flirtatiously, so Howard decided to flirt back.

"Good – can't wait!" That was true.

"This morning was phenomenal," she told him in a very husky, sensual voice. "I could enjoy more of that."

Howard replied, "Yeah – the soap was great this morning." Tracy looked back at him, rather sexily, yet puzzled.

Unfortunately, the masquerade was up very quickly. When Roger came into the bedroom to find his wife hanging out with Howard in the bathroom, he was none too pleased. "Tracy Lynn," he said. Tracy turned to see the real Roger standing by the bed, arms folded in front of him and his feet planted about a foot apart. He looked very commanding in that position. "What are you doing!"

"Flirting with…" Tracy looked from one man to the other, realizing where she was. "Uh-oh … I goofed, didn't I?"

"You did. But I daresay you wouldn't have gotten very far before you figured it out," Roger told her.

Howard snickered. "Damn. And I thought …"

"That's tomorrow. It doesn't include tonight, too," Roger stated. Tracy didn't understand what it meant, but she was still reeling from her error.


	3. Chapter 3 The Deception

Chapter 3 – The Deception

Tracy prepared breakfast for the two men and the two children before she set out for her party, which was up in Bellaire. She bid goodbye to both Howard and Howie before she left, as their plane was at 3:00 pm to return to Chicago. As soon as she went out the door, the two men looked at each other, did sinister chuckles, shook hands, and set off on their plan…switching kids without telling them, to see if they'd know their own dads.

First, they dressed alike. Both had khaki-color trousers – Howard's were his airline uniform pants, and Roger's were just civilian pants. Roger had two navy blue polo shirts that were identical, so he loaned one to Howard. They kept their own wallets, but Roger handed Howard a check that Tracy had given him, already filled out. To further confuse things. Roger handed his set of car keys to Howard to let him drive. Fortunately, the two places they were going were within a few blocks of each other.

Howard dropped Roger and Howie off at an ice rink. "Bye, s- Howie," he said, trying not to give away what they were doing.

"Bye, Colonel Healey, thanks for the ride," Howie replied, then turned to Roger. "Dad, how come you've never taken me ice skating in Chicago?"

"Oh, I did, but it was a long time ago," Roger faked it. He was still amazed at the feeling at being called "Dad" by a boy. Skylar always called him "Daddy". Occasionally T.J. would slip and call him "Dad" but he was still really young.

"I don't remember you taking me."

Roger paid for their admission and skate rental, and helped get Howie fitted to a pair of skates. Howard had told him that Howie probably skated but he wasn't really sure. Roger himself had been skating recently, because he often went with T.J. if Tony were too busy.

"Dad, that's too tight," Howie said. Roger loosened the ties just a little, but not much.

Roger got his own rental skates put on, and laced up. He had gotten hockey style skates for both of them, because that's what he always wore with T.J. "Let's go, partner," Roger grabbed Howie by the hand and called him by the name that Tony called T.J. It was the first mistake.

Howie stopped. "Dad, you've never called me that before."

"Well – since you don't remember skating with me, then we have to be skating partners, right?" Fortunately, Roger was very good at deceptions – thirteen years hiding a genie's powers will make you an expert quickly.

"Yeah – I GUESS so…"

Roger noticed that Howie seemed comfortable on the skates, but not as relaxed as T.J. usually was. They skated together for awhile. Howie fell a couple of times and pulled Roger down with him. Finally he decided to skate separately from his "dad", and Roger was free to skate alone. He skated down the rink and suddenly, a little boy of five years old shot out near him.

"Colonel Healey! Where's T.J.?" asked Adam.

Roger looked around. "Ssh, Adam. Don't use my name today, okay?"

"Are you playing 'undercover man'?" Adam giggled.

"I guess you could say that. And to answer your question, T.J. isn't here. He's with his dad today."

"Are you here ALONE? Or did you bring Skylar?"

"No – I'm with him," Roger indicated Howie, skating past. "His name's Howie, if you want to say hi."

Adam looked at the ten-year-old and shook his head. "No, he's too big."

Meanwhile, Howard looked at the directions that Roger had written down for him. 'Hmm, our handwriting even looks similar,' Howard thought. He drove the Healey family car, the one Tracy usually drove, to the dance studio.

"I like ballet," Skylar told him. "Daddy, did you ever do ballet?"

Howard choked back a laugh, and pulled the car into the parking slot right in front of the studio. "No, I don't think so." He shut the engine off and said, "Now, where do you go?" That was his first mistake.

"Daddy! You took me here last time!"

"Yeah, I guess I did."

"Did you forgetted again? Mommy needs to know if you forgetted. She told me!"

"No, I remember." Howard breathed a sigh of relief.

The little girl, dressed in a black leotard and pink tights and street shoes, grabbed a small case from the back seat as Howard helped her out. "Wow, Daddy. You help me out of the car!"

"Anything for you, sweetheart." By this time, Howard was falling in love with the little girl who belonged to the astronaut.

As they went into the studio, Howard noticed that he was the only father in the waiting room. All the rest were mothers. There were a few writing checks but most were helping their daughters put on shoes. However, Skylar seemed to be able to get her own ballet shoes on, without his help. Then she handed him a thing that looked like a rubber band.

"Daddy, can you put this in my hair?" she asked him.

Howard looked at the object and wondered what he was supposed to do with it. "How?"

"You know – a ponytail."

"I don't know how to do that."

"But Daddy, you helped me last time!"

Howard was totally befuddled. Women's hair was definitely not his thing. Fortunately for him, another mother noticed his predicament and came to the rescue. "Oh, Colonel Healey, I guess Tracy didn't do Skylar's hair this morning? Come, Skylar, I'll do it for you," the mother said, and Howard breathed a sigh of relief.

It took two more mothers handing the receptionist a check, for Howard to realize that he was carrying a check. He went into his wallet to take out the check, stood up and as he handed it to the receptionist he said, "This is from Mrs. Hea- from Tracy," he corrected himself. He had no idea what it was for.

When the class began, all the other mothers went into a little observation room to watch class. Howard followed them. Another father had come in with his daughter, and sat next to Howard in the room. Howard was totally out of his element here. He had no idea what the girls were doing, but it looked pretty. The music was also very nice – mostly piano, coming from a record player in one corner of the room. The teacher was built like a stick but seemed to know what she was doing with four and five year old girls.

"So, Colonel Healey," the father next to Howard spoke quietly, "What's it like up in space?"

Howard stopped to think before he answered. "Heavenly."

The other man smiled, the women all around had heard the conversation and giggled.


	4. Chapter 4 Caught!

Chapter 4 – Caught!

Meanwhile, back at the ice rink, Roger had gotten cold despite the vigorous skating. Howie had challenged him to a couple of races down the rink.

"Want to get some hot chocolate at the snack bar?" Roger asked his "son for the day".

"Sounds great, Dad."

The two sat in the snack bar, which was rubberized so that skaters could go in with their skates still on, and drank hot chocolate. Roger would have preferred a cup of coffee. But Howard had said at breakfast that morning, he only drank one cup of coffee a day. This was one smart little guy, smarter than his dad, perhaps. He would figure it out in a minute if Roger drank the wrong thing.

In the snack bar, Adam came up to Roger and Howie. "Are you SURE T.J. isn't coming today?"

Roger was uncomfortable about answering, with Howie this close. But Howie solved the problem for him. "I think you're mixing him up with an astronaut. This is my dad, Howard Borden. Colonel Healey just looks like him."

Adam looked even more puzzled than ever, looking back and forth between Roger and Howie. He shook his head and walked away.

Back at the ballet studio, Skylar took a running dive into Howard's lap when she finished class. "Daddy, that was fun! And next week, Miss Gina teaches us to turn like a ballerina!"

Howard hugged the little girl. This was a new sensation, hugging a small daughter, and he was enjoying it. "I'm glad you had fun, Skylar."

"I'm hungry!"

"Me, too. Let's go get a burger?" It seemed the right thing to say, and Skylar looked excited.

Skylar had a hard time tying her shoes, so she plopped herself back in Howard's lap and drew up her foot. "Help me tie?" Howard tied her shoes for her, and she gave him another hug.

Howard looked up and down the street, trying to figure out where he might find the local hamburger joint, preferably a McDonald's or Burger King. His eyes lit upon one about four blocks up the road. Once at Burger King, though, he made his second mistake. "What do you want to eat?"

Skylar looked shocked. "Daddy! You never ask me! You just get it for me!"

"Well – …" Howard didn't know how to answer that one. He said to the cashier, "One Burger King Kids Meal, hamburger…"

"Daddy, you KNOW I like cheese!"

"One Burger King Kids Meal, cheeseburger, small fries, and a small chocolate shake for her, and a Whopper, large fries, and a large Coke for me."

Skylar stared at him again. "Daddy? I get a SHAKE! You always order milk!" She gave him a big grin and hugged his knees. "I like shakes – and you always say no!"

"Special occasion, Toots."

"What's 'Toots'?" Now she looked puzzled.

Howard just grinned. "You."

After a little more skating, Roger took Howie into the snack bar for lunch. Howie was just as confused as Skylar was, because Roger didn't seem to know what to order for him, and seemed very sure of himself. While they were sitting there eating, Howie looked at him.

"You're not my father, you're Colonel Healey, aren't you?" Howie asked.

Roger smiled slyly. "And you're VERY smart. How did you figure it out?"

"A lot of things. But first, if my DAD had taken me skating, he'd have spent most of the time falling down. You didn't fall down a lot."

"Good observation, partner. If you want to be an astronaut, that's a good trait to have. Anything else?"

"Dad would have ordered my meal for me. I HATE it when he does that, he still thinks I'm five," Howie stated. "So where's my dad?"

"Your dad has Skylar today. He wanted to know what it would be like to have a daughter, and I wanted to know what it would be like to have a son. So we decided to trade," Roger told Howie. "Are you mad?"

Howie laughed. "No, it was fun. I was with Dad all day yesterday and I'll get him for the rest of the weekend."

"I'm glad you had fun, because I sure enjoyed going to the ice rink with you more than I would have liked taking Skylar to ballet class."

The little boy let out a whoop. "DAD went to a ballet class!"

"It's an eye opener. Skylar started ballet about a month ago. Her mom used to take ballet when she was little."

Howie giggled. "I can't imagine my dad sitting at a ballet class." He looked up at Roger and asked, "Can I tell you something, and you promise you won't tell my dad?"

"Yup, you can tell me, and I won't tell your dad unless I think it's something he really, really needs to know," Roger told him.

"I think I figured out that you weren't my dad when you started telling me about how skaters get going so fast. My dad isn't that smart to know all that science stuff."

Roger gulped. "I think your dad is probably smarter in some things than you give him credit for."

"And one more thing, Colonel Healey," Howie hesitated at first, then went on, "My dad really does love me a lot."

"I wouldn't be surprised at that at all. The second time I ever met him, I asked him if he had any children, and he spoke of you with lots of love in his eyes. But you know something else, Howie?" Roger looked right at Howie and went on. "If you were my son, I think I'd love you just as much."

"There's one more thing, Colonel," Howie said, then looked down at the floor sadly.

"What's that?"

"Skylar's lucky. She has two parents that live together all the time. My dad and mom haven't lived together since I was really little."

There wasn't anything that Roger could say to that, to make Howie feel better.

Howard and Skylar were sitting at Burger King, enjoying their meal, when Skylar looked up at him.

"You're not my daddy," she stated.

"No? Why do you think that?"

"You don't smell like my daddy," Skylar said.

Howard remembered that Roger had asked him not to wear any after-shave lotion or cologne today, and he had complied. Tracy had told Roger that Skylar knew right away that Howard wasn't her father, by the way he smelled. "I didn't wear any cologne today, sweetheart."

"My daddy not call me Toots. Daddy calls me Punkin."

"I can't have a new name for you?"

"And … my daddy love me lots. He loves me so much, he and Mommy got married again. And you love Howie, don't you?"

Howard nodded. "Very much. But you know something, Skylar … I think if you were MY little girl, I'd love YOU just as much as I love Howie."


	5. Chapter 5 It All Works Out

Chapter 5 – It All Works Out

Roger and Skylar took the Bordens back to the airport that afternoon, delivering them to the Worldwide Airlines terminal by Howard's reporting time of 2:00 p.m. Howie gave his new "little sister" Skylar a big hug, then each man gave their newly "adopted child" a hug.

When Roger got home, Tracy was putting all of her Hot Stuff tubs away. Skylar went to talk to her, and within minutes, Tracy came out fuming.

"What do you MEAN, you traded children and didn't tell them who you were?" she hollered at Roger.

"Calm down. It was both of our ideas. Howard wanted to see what it was like to have a daughter, and I wanted to know what it was like with a 10 year old boy. So we traded kids and didn't tell them we weren't who they thought we were."

"You TRICKED them!"

"No, not really. Howie assumed I was his father, and I never said I was or wasn't. Skylar assumed Howard was me."

"Did you ever tell them?"

"Trace, honey – they both guessed. I don't think it took either of them very long. Howie's a pretty smart little guy – he figured out I wasn't his dad by the fact that I didn't fall down a lot when I skated."

Tracy tried not to laugh, but she did anyway. "I guess T.J. taught you that, eh?"

"Yeah. And Howard gave it away to Skylar when he ordered a milkshake for her, for lunch. She knows I always get her regular milk."

"But that still wasn't…"

"Sweetie, we all had a good lesson from this. We remember just who we love and why, and that it's fun to share another person's kid once in awhile to make us appreciate each other." Roger took Tracy in his arms. "And when Howard looked at you last night, in the bathroom, I knew I wasn't letting you go. I might be able to share my kid, but I can't share my wife, with ANYone." He laid a gentle kiss on her lips that became passionate. Skylar came around the corner, saw her parents kissing, and giggled.

"My mommy and daddy – they kiss – again!"

**_Copyright 2005 CAJeannieFan57/Donna Ransdell _**


End file.
